By Rep. Samuel E. Rohrer (R-Berks)Americans recently learned that Alex Rodriguez, a perennial all-star Major League Baseball (MLB) player, used "performance enhancing" substances to boost his playing abilities. The legendary player, once referred to as A-Rod, has recently been re-branded as A-Roid, a form of chastisement for yet another case in a long string of steroid abuse scandals in recent MLB history.
Unfortunately, baseball isn't the only place where attempting to reach for success by following the quick and easy path has led to disaster. In fact, it would be fair to say that America's current economic condition has been caused by a string of "performance enhancing" economic policies adopted by national leaders in Washington, D.C., both recently and in years past.
Most people agree that the burst of the housing market bubble signaled the beginning of America's current economic turmoil. However, this begs the question: What caused the housing bubble to form in the first place? The answer, in laymen's terms, is "economic steroids."
It all began with a noble, yet not well thought out, concept. In the 1990s, it became popular to suggest that every American - regardless of how bad their credit might be or how low their income - should be able to buy a home. Despite the fact that this illogically suggested that people who were earning minimum wage or even unemployed should be entitled to a mortgage, federal politicians were not willing to let financial reality get in the way of a popular platitude.
Lenders were given their marching orders by the federal government to proceed forward with the universal homeownership agenda. New, more relaxed lending policies were put in place in conjunction with artificially low interest rates and home loans were provided to people who had little or no ability to pay them back.
As more and more buyers entered the housing market, demand went up and so did home values. Americans were witnessing the short-term benefits of performance enhancing economic policies. However, like with steroid use among athletes, the long-term side effects went virtually unnoticed.
Then it happened. Many families that never should have qualified for a mortgage in the first place began to default on their loans. Home values began to sink back in line with reality, where they would have been if economic steroids had not been used to bulk them up.
Leaders in Washington, D.C., who pushed the economic performance enhancers into the market, began blaming the lenders, like a steroid producer pointing a finger of blame at the seller. Similar to most addicts, instead of admitting there was a problem and dealing with it directly, politicians in our nation's capital began looking for ways to disguise the underlying issue.
Like an athlete who refuses to walk away from the inflated statistics they reach through artificially enhanced performance, the federal government was unwilling to live without the over-inflated prosperity caused by the economic steroids. Instead, government decided to double down on a bad bet.
This led to the first federal bailout appropriation of $700 billion. Like a new shot of steroids, this was supposed to "juice" our economy back to its former level. It failed miserably. After taking apparently half a second to reflect on the situation, federal politicians proposed yet another shot of economic performance enhancers. Lawmakers are currently debating how to borrow and spend nearly $1 trillion more to "stimulate" the economy back to its glory days.
Perhaps worst of all, the hard-working Americans who played by the rules - who built up their credit, saved for a down payment and bought a house within their means - will be punished as a result of Washington, D.C.'s, economic steroid addiction. They are the ones who have seen their tax dollars used to purchase defunct companies that only thrived due to an artificially high performing economy. They are the ones who will have to pay back the trillions of dollars in new national debt.
The easy path was to use economic performance enhancers to bulk up our national economy. However, the easy choice and the right choice are seldom one and the same. A better path to follow would have been to build economic growth on the solid foundation of American ingenuity, entrepreneurship and hard work.
America can grow again to the economic heights it once reached. However, it must do so within the constraints of financial reality. National leaders must kick their addiction to economic steroids that promise fast results while diverting attention away from long-term side effects. Instead, it's time to rely on clean, natural economic growth. If politicians in our nation's capital complete economic steroid rehab, American working families can surely succeed.
